Study: In Traffic, Men More Stressed Than Women
When it comes to remaining calm in traffic, women tend to have a cooler head than men, according to new research by satnav firm TomTom.
Measuring the rise in stress level in saliva (ew!), British researchers tested volunteers when caught in a traffic jam and found that the levels for women increased by 8.7 percent while stuck behind the wheel. For men, it skyrocketed 60 per cent in the same traffic scenario.
An interesting finding of the study was that most participants reported they didn’t feel stressed, even though the results showed they were. About two thirds of the women and half (50 per cent) of men reported not feeling any stress after 20 minutes in heavy traffic, but the results showed differently.
This mean that if you get stuck in traffic during the daily commute to work, you could be stressing out your health and not even know it. And according to health psychologist David Moxon, this could lead to erratic driving. In response to our ‘fight or flight’ response, men tend to sit and fume while stuck in traffic, while women cope better with the pressure.
A global survey of 10,000 drivers for TomTom showed 72 per cent drove on a daily basis and 86 per cent felt traffic had a negative impact on their lives.
So how people amuse themselves in traffic? In Britain, 77 percent listen to music, 23 percent sing, 16 percent make phone calls, 20 percent eat/drink and 3 percent smoke.
What do you do to stay calm in congestion? Share your tips in the comments section below.
More by Amy Tokic
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